A Mississippi police chief who ordered a new animal control officer to shoot several dogs in the city’s animal shelter has been suspended without pay, with many in the community calling for his termination.

According to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Animal Control Officer Vidal Anderson was in his first day on the job for the City of Winona, a community of about 4,500 located 140 miles west of Tuscaloosa, when police chief Roshaun Daniels ordered him to clear the shelter and handed Anderson a gun.

Anderson complied with the order, shooting and killing several dogs who had been in the shelter beyond the legal number of days they had to be held before they could be euthanized, Winona alderwoman Sylvia Clark said during this week’s board of aldermen meeting, according to the report.

Anderson was also suspended and both men will remain suspended without pay until aldermen make a final decision, which state law mandates must be within 10 days.

Mississippi law allows for the euthanasia of shelter dogs after a certain number of days, but does not specify the means of euthanizing the animals. The American Veterinary Medicine Association says shooting dogs is an acceptable means of euthanasia and provides guidelines for euthanizing animals with a firearm.

It’s unknown whether Anderson followed those guidelines in shooting the dogs at the Winona shelter.

Whether the shootings were legal or not, many Winona residents are outraged at the killings.

Tuesday’s aldermen meeting was a standing-room-only affair, with residence expressing shock, sadness and anger over the incident, the newspaper reported. Protesters outside city hall held up signs and passing motorists honked their horns in support.

Two animal rights activists said they found the dogs’ bodies in a city-owned dumpster. Doll Stanley of In Defense of Animals, said Andeson and a city inmate were seen on March 9 unloading four dogs from a city truck, tying them up and then shooting them.